I have to start by saying that I've played Destiny religiously, every week when I can, since Vanilla launch of D2. And that this post is going to get a little rant-y and quite a long post. Skip down to solutions to the TL;DR to understand what I am saying, and what can be done to fix the issues present. Infusing was perfectly normal back then. But players had an over abundance of master work cores if they played crucible almost exclusively. We're talking stacks upon stacks of 99 master work cores filling up their inventories. I had about maybe 3 at a time. So using cores to infuse became a thing. While streamers/tubers were happy, the general player base, be them casual or hybrid, are not. Once I finally get caught up to the power level cap, I save up my cores so I can start master working. This time, at 650 on all characters, I got up to about 18 cores (my RNG has been utterly piss poor since I started playing this game). I'm like "alright, I can finally master work this piece of gear" but then the power level cap was increased to 700... ...and suddenly I'm down to only about 3 cores maximum. I do the Spider Bounties, I dismantle armor pieces, I reset my valor, and still...can't keep up. It's a tireless process of level up, max out, get cores, go broke, level up, max out, get cores, go broke. Over and over and over and over again. I'm not even leveling up armor if it's only a +1 light difference. I wait till there's a substantial gap between what I currently have on a piece and my next powerful drop, especially when I start to notice my gear level hitting a plateau. Enchancement Cores, because I've been calling them "masterwork" this entire post, for infusion is literally the worst possible thing that one can do with such a valuable resource in Destiny. I want to use my favorite gear, for perks or looks, regardless, I want to use my favorite gear. I want to infuse my exotics. On top of that, I have three characters to manage. It may be fine if you had one character to manage, but three? It's a bit ridiculous for someone to spend all their free time in this game to be utterly stomped into slow progression because of this system. I'm not a streamer, or a youtuber, I have a job outside of the game, a life to manage. My valuable free time is funneled into Destiny with no output. Hell, the Allegiance quest alone on two characters bankrupted by Glimmer. Which is fine, I can get it back, but the Enhancement Cores? They're so invasive in how they're applied to infusion, so atrocious to even hybrid players. Like, I get it, you want your infusions to mean something of value, you want to be able to make conscious choices, not just mindless infusion. But there needs to be a balance between the two. I've not had a single master worked piece of armor since masterworking was introduced into the game because of the frequent power level increases, and previously the poor RNG that accompanied cores. If you've managed to stockpile enhancement cores? Great, props to you. But not everyone has the luxury of fabulous RNG. Here's a small scenario, that happened nearly 30 minutes prior to this post: To start, let me give you a rundown of what we're doing. Me and a Friend use the vendor system to try and generate some masterwork gear. Vance in the Lighthouse seems to produce the most common masterworked gears that, when dismantled, can yield 1-3 cores. Simulation Seeds, the world material you turn into Vance for packages, are being sold 5 for 1 shard. I have about 400 shards. My friend has probably 800 something. I spent exactly 200 shards on Sim Seeds. My friend spends roughly the same amount. We go to Vance, start turning in packages. Now my friend, once it's all said and done, walks out with 20+ cores and has remade about 280-ish shards out of the amount they spent. I did not. I walked out with one masterworked weapon, which I decided to keep because I spent half my shards, zero cores, and only made about 75 shards back. I completely obliterated my world materials. I eventually returned to Spider, got some sim seeds back for the little gear that I use that requires it, and got off for the night. A clear example of RNG being super kind to some players, and brutally harsh to others. Especially when we funnel about the same amount of game time into Destiny on a daily basis. TL;DR: RNG is brutal to some players, going broke in a game you play religiously feels like a punishment for playing the game, enhancement cores are very punishing and need to be balanced so players don't go broke so quickly with a power level increase. Something needs to be done about this. Now that my ranting is over, I can offer a couple fixes to this (best to worst). #1.) The best easiest solution to the problem, imo, is either reduce the amount of cores needed for infusion to 1 for legendary, two for exotics, and increase the sources for masterwork cores, but not so much to the point people are walking around with 4 - 9 stacks of cores. Maybe make them a little more rare than a legendary drop, but as rare as prime drop. And let them drop randomly +1 to +3 from any source while having the bounties boosted to maybe offer +5 at completion instead of +1. Just a little more incentive to get shit done, and allow for satisfying rewards to compliment the system that's currently in place. Also have them a different drop model than a purple engram, other than an engram or a shiny thing, that way players can visually tell when one drops. #2.) Only decrease the value of infusions by one for legendary and exotics pieces. Allow Spider to accept Cores as a trade for a good chunk of Legendary Shards for players that have an over abundance of cores, and maybe allow players to purchase a handful of vendor tokens with those said, now excessive, legendary shards so they can then be turned into packages at a later date. (I am aware of other means of spending legendary shards, this is just another option). #3.) Completely revert the system of infusion, but keep the glimmer, world materials, and introduce armor materials back into the game specific to certain class armor being dismantled, to allow those that want value to keep the value of their infusions (don't need to be excessive about it, just offer a few each dismantle). - Side Note: Overall, bring back the idea of turning in excessive materials to Faction Vendors and other NPC Vendors to allow the player more options to chose from. Despite all those Motes of Light I gave Dead Orbit in D1, I'm sure their surplus is running low by now. Factions are another topic entirely, but the idea of Factions from D1 and D2 should be melded together to make the world around our Guardians matter. Js. #4.) Remove cores from infusion entirely, keep everything else the same. A cheap fix to a expensive problem. Take away from this post what you will, but something needs to change. I hope DMG_04 or Cozmo sees this and can pass along some of these solutions/ideas into the new summit event for Season of Opulence.